The time of year is upon us over here where we take time to give thanks to the moon...and to eat pomelos and moon cakes. The history is highly interesting and highly muddled, but it goes something like this:
Many moons ago, literally, the Mongolians ruled - occupied - China. The Chinese peasants were controlled in every act and in every activity. Their lives were controlled by a, reportedly, hostile and fervent rule. The only way to confront the Mongolian rule was to revolt, but the Mongolians were so numerous, so powerful and so violent that it was a hard event to organize. So, in liu of any potential to actually hold public demonstrations, awareness campaigns, etc, the Chinese decided to do it in a much more circumnavigational way - Moon Cakes.
The Mongolians knew that the Chinese liked to make a certain kind of pastry, but thought it much too "Chinese" and below them to actually eat, so they brushed it off as food for the slaves, not for the rulers. The peasants used this to their advantage; they made batches upon batches of moon cakes, and inside - knowing that no good Mongolian soldier would dare lower himself to eat one - was written a message on piece of paper. This is where the history gets clouded, but the main line of thought is that the paper had on it a description of what was to occur (a revolution, a violent uprising to take back China) and a date. The most probable date for peasants without any technology would be the brightest day of the year. This would have been the first full moon of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. So, moon cakes were made, and the Chinese made special arrangements with the Mongolian soldiers to share these cakes as they were the one piece of their culture that was important to them - so they said. The Mongolian soliers allowed them to share their cakes, and they spread them around the entire region. Everybody got wind of the revolution - every Chinese - but no Mongolian. Then, on what we now celebrate as the Moon Festival, on the same full moon of the same lunar month, the revolution took place, and China was reportedly granted sovereignty once again.
So now, we eat moon cakes to honour that day and that method, and we eat pomelos because....they are in season. And people eat - and give - a lot. A whack load. Especially as a teacher, pomelos and mooncakes are filling fridges around China and Taiwan.
There is a myth that goes along with this historical event, but it is too tooth fairy like to deal with. A man cutting a tree on the moon, a white rabbit churning out immortality potion, a wicked woman on the moon, a man living in the sun....
So happy Moon Festival. We will be celebrating by taking a, hopefully, epic hike along the Walami Trail tomorrow and returning home to bbq on the street with our neighbours...and eat moon cakes and pomelos. Lots of them.
And sunday.....recovery.
My ode to the moon of next week. The full moon is gorgeous, but any astronomer with their salt would tell you that lunar observation is best at any phase other than full, so on this day when the full moon gets all the attention, I pay homage to the forgotten phase :)
This is nothing compared to what we have accumulated in the last week. We have eaten at least one pomelo a dayfor two weeks, all of which have been gifts to us, and there are two more boxes of moon cakes not pictured that are secured under our desk (out of sight!), a few more in the fridge and a few here and there that made it into our stomachs. All gifts - the ones in the far back, that look home made, are home made by the sister of our frid and co-worker. The rest are specialty items from special region of Taiwan (one of them is actually famous within Asia....not sure which . Ill tell you later once they are all safely ingested.
ABOVE and BELOW: Our pre-moon festival celebration in RueiSuei tonight. Dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant and a few bevy's at what has become out local hangout.
